So there you have it.
Two top generals, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller, are calling for women in the draft.
This comes after the announcement late last year from Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter that effective immediately, all military occupational specialties, including combat arms - which were previously off-limits to women - are now open to them.
Sargent Sheena Adams, 25, Hospital Corpsman Shannon Crowley, 22, and Lance Corporal Kristi Baker, 21, US Marines with the FET (Female Engagement Team) 1st Battalion 8th Marines, Regimental Combat team II pose at their forward operating base on November 17, 2010 in Musa Qala, Afghanistan. (Photo: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus Jr., has said there needs to be “a national debate” over what the changes mean.
Outcries came from purists and traditionalists that standards would be changed or lowered in order for women to be included in combat roles. People shouted that it was absurd to think that women could function effectively on the battlefield; after all, they were the weaker, feebler member of the species.
How could they possibly lift a 200-pound male colleague and carry him off the battlefield? Wouldn’t they cry and hide when the bullets start flying? Wouldn’t their male colleagues abandon their duty just to protect their weaker colleague?
I think some of these same things were expressed over 100 years ago when basketball was introduced to girls and women. They were made to play in zones of the court, for fear they would pass out from exhaustion if they ran up and down the entire length of it.
Needless to say, there are differences between men and women that may or may not affect their performance, but in modern times we have seen women develop physically and athletically to within under a second in speed to their fastest male counterpart.
Women athletes run and swim nearly as fast, jump nearly as far, and can do pretty much anything a man can do. The best women can beat most men at these things. So, why not fight? For the most part, women who join the military today are not afraid of physical activity.
But this latest news isn’t about the capabilities of women who volunteer for service; it’s about the capabilities of ALL women aged 18-26 who would be considered for the draft. Why not?
Left liberal influences in the Barack Obama administration have jerked us forward, whether we like it or not, in their progressive sweep of traditional American values, from gay marriage to gays serving openly in the military, now it’s the feminist dream to be drafted along with all her male equals, is it not?
Someone once said, “be careful what you wish for.” Indeed.
Since at least 1989 and the invasion of Panama, and through operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, women have proven themselves in combat. Over 9,000 women have earned the Combat Action Badge, and since Sept. 11, 2001, at least 606 have been wounded, and at least 146 have died in combat.
“Women in combat” isn’t new.
Some have excelled, like Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, who was awarded a Silver Star for her exceptional performance in combat, suppressing, along with her brethren, an insurgent convoy ambush in Iraq in 2005.
Some have passed the demanding Army Ranger School. One has passed the Army’s Combat Engineer course. Artillery, armor, the Marines and Special Forces are next, and why not?
At this point, if it’s all open to women, why not draft them?
One reason is that it goes against our nature. (Yikes! I can feel the feminists coming to get me as I type!)
That’s right, I said it – NATURE. Nature, God, biology, society, values, religion, morals, ethics, common sense, hormones, call it what you will, women pro-create, and we value that. It helps keep the species alive.
It’s important for most women to bear children. It is natural, normal and expected for most women. Timing is everything. Once a woman’s anatomy and physiology matures enough to give birth she has what’s called a “biological clock” that ticks louder the older she gets.
Child bearing and motherhood are not ideally compatible with a military career. Although it is not impossible, the military are quick to remind young soldiers that Uncle Sam did not issue them a spouse or a child, so don’t expect Uncle Sam to care whether or not you feel bad because you got deployed somewhere far away and dangerous without them.
There are other occupations not conducive to child bearing and parenting as well, jobs that require travel or physical labor. Professional women athletes tend to wait until their relatively short careers are over before they start a family.
Yet, proponents of women in the draft will say that if there were a draft only a small percentage of women would be affected and our national capacity to reproduce would not be significantly impacted.
But there is a great way draft aged women can avoid being drafted! Pregnancy! Guys haven’t figured this one out for themselves, yet.
So, problem solved, girls; afraid of the draft interfering with your plans? You know what to do.
But seriously, isn’t drafting women going a bit too far? Are we really ready to see our daughters, wives and sisters forced to serve, fight and die? Isn’t it enough that the few and the proud serve of their own free will?
I can live with all-women volunteer combat units. I can live with integrated non-combat units. I can even live with the 27-year-old tradition of female Military Police in combat - that works, and works well - but integrating traditionally all male units that have the most demanding of all roles would be like telling the NFL they have to integrate.
The idea may seem like it’s addressing a question of fairness, but equal isn’t always fair, and equal is not always the right thing to do.
What do you think? Take TheBlaze poll here.
Montgomery Granger is a three-times mobilized U.S. Army major (Ret.) and author of "Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior." Amazon, Blog, Facebook, Twitter: @mjgranger1
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